Creation of the Anti-Corruption Committee is of Imitative Character

2015-03-19 / 21 00

“Corruption has not been defeated in any country of the world through establishing Anti-Corruption Committees. It is simply an imitative process.” Boris Navasardyan, President of Yerevan Press Club said in the interview with Iravaban.net.

He is generally against the idea that it is possible to fight against the corruption through advice. “First of all it is necessary to improve the activities of already existing bodies, however with regard to making transparent the corruption risks it is possible through the council if such councils are composed of truly independent and skilled NGOs; if the information they need is accessible, so that the NGOs will make accessible such information as well. This council may be useful only just from the aspect of keeping the public informed,” Mr. Navasardyan concluded.

He believes that the councils will work effectively if their decisions will have effect. “I would see the sense of creating the council if its members were provided opportunity to make inquiries and to receive information from the state bodies. In principle, development of any anti-corruption police, if it is implemented through councils or committees cannot be effective,” Mr. Navasardyan said.

Thus, according to him, the best that the anti-corruption council can achieve is ensuring awareness. “But usually it does not work as well because these bodies have purely imitative nature. In any case, it is the only hope,” he said.

“Multi-Faceted Anti-Corruption Promotion” project section in www.iravaban.net website has been produced and launched with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this section are the sole responsibility of the Armenian Young Lawyers Association NGO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.